On the fence about buying a home in New Orleans? New analysis by neighborhood research site HomeArea.com suggests it may be better to hold off and continue renting for now.

The analysis, which used U.S. Census Bureau data to compare median home values and median annual rent in various cities, highlights New Orleans as one of five Louisiana cities where it may be more affordable to rent than buy a home right now. The analysis looked only at cities with a population at or above 60,000 people.

The website calculated a price-to-rent ratio for eight Louisiana cities, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, by dividing the median home value in each city by the median annual rent. The ratio goes up when home prices rise faster than local rents. A high price-to-rent ratio indicates it may be more affordable to rent a home rather than buy, at least until home values slow down.

In HomeArea.com’s analysis, a price-to-rent ratio of 15 or lower indicates a more favorable market for buying, while a ratio of 20 or higher favors renting.

New Orleans got a 23.8, ranking fourth on the list of Louisiana cities where it may be better to rent. The median home price in Orleans Parish is $183,700, according to the analysis, which used estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

HomeArea.com found median costs for home owners in New Orleans with a mortgage to be about $1,585 a month. That compared with $926 a month in median rent, with utilities included.

It’s worth noting that the median rent HomeArea.com is using appears to be on the lower side in terms of rental rate estimates for the city. For comparison, rent tracking website RentCafe looks at average rents nationwide, and estimates New Orleans renters pay about $1,118 on average. (Remember that average is not the same as median. Here’s a quick explainer on the difference between the two.)

Where else does HomeArea.com think it makes more sense to rent? Nearby Metairie got a price-to-rent ratio of 22.9, with median homeowner costs of $1,572 a month and median rent of $883 a month. Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Lafayette also had ratios that suggest renting is more affordable in those cities.

Cities where buying may be more affordable included Bossier City, Kenner and Lake Charles, according to the analysis.

The average price for a single family home sold in Orleans Parish was up 8.6 percent in the first half of 2018, according to an August report prepared by Real Property Associates with data from the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors and Gulf South Real Estate Information Network. By comparison, average values held steady in Jefferson Parish, St. Bernard Parish and the River Parishes. St. Tammany jumped 14.1 percent, with home values nearly on par with prices fetched in Jefferson Parish, according to the report.

Here is the list of cities included in the HomeArea.com analysis as well as their price-to-rent ratio.